Halloween Night
by Shiera137Faustus
Summary: Nathaniel never liked Halloween. If I say any more I'll give it all away.
1. Part 1

_Disclaimer: don't own the Bartimaeus Trilogy OR the character OR the plot. Jonathon Stroud owns that._

Nathaniel looked around nervously.

"Bartimaeus?" he called out. "Bartimaeus! Come here right now!" Still no reply. Nathaniel walked into the haunted house. It was run by magicians, and was therefore quite magical, but not the least bit dangerous. Well, not too dangerous.

After rounding a corner, he saw some jack-o-lanterns. Whatever.

Then he felt webs. Shuddering, he quickened his pace, yet the webs still brushed lightly against his face. He began struggling despite his training to stay emotionless.

Then he stopped. Something light was crawling up his arm. The darkness, the inability to see heightened his other senses, and fear grew.

It continued its way up. Nathaniel began brushing frantically, trying to rid himself of the creature, but to no avail.

"Bartimaeus!" he regretted his choice to allow the demon to have pulled him into this place. Not that he was frightened; of course not. It was merely that, well, he was… uncomfortable around certain types of bug. Eight-legged bugs…

A small light pulsated before him. Something told him that if he followed it, everything would be alright. Ignoring all other senses, he followed the light.

Ignoring all other senses, he didn't hear the warning beep in his ear.

The imp giggled madly, led the magician to a skeleton, and then faded away.

Nathaniel blinked twice before returning back to reality. Something was wrong… He took in his surroundings and groaned inwardly.

At least there were no more cobwebs in his face, and the tickling sensation had gone away.

He muttered a curse beneath his breath and turned around –

To be met be a grinning skull.

"Well, well, well, it looks as though a disobedient, forgetful little magician had strayed from the path," a high, nasally voice said.

Nathaniel took one look at the demon and calculated his chances. He didn't fancy them and tried to dart past it.

A cold, iron grip grabbed onto his hand. "And where do you think you're going?"

Nathaniel gulped.

"Please, mister spirit sir, I mean no harm. I merely lost my way and -" he was cut short by a chuckle erupting from the demon.

"Huh hah," it laughed. "'Mister spirit sir'? Well, Mandrake, I never thought I would see the day when you would refer to me so politely come."

Nathaniel's expression twisted into one of utmost confusion, then, hesitantly, he asked, "Bartimaeus?"

"The one and the only," came the demon's familiar voice. "How do you do, Natty boy?" Saying so, he shifted form to become a dark-skinned Egyptian boy wearing an outfit mirroring his master's.

"Shut up!" yelped Nathaniel, clamping a sweaty hand over Bartimaeus's mouth.

Bartimaeus tore his head away. "Watch where you put that thing. Next time I'll snap it off. Honestly, why is it wet? Now my essence shall be eternally scarred," he moaned, placing a hand on his forehead in mock distress.

Nathaniel glowered at his servant but said nothing.

"Well? Why are you here?"

Nathaniel snarled. "Hmm. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I was stupid enough to grant your request of 'enjoying a lovely holiday'."

"What do you mean?" the Egyptian boy asked, looking truly perplexed.

"Oh bloody hell, you know full well what I mean!" Nathaniel cried out in frustration.

"No, I don't. Every Hallows' Eve, the spirits – both on Earth and in the Other Place – are able to break loose of their bonds and can stay at any cemetery to recharge their energies. It is better than even the Other Place. We are currently in one such place. What I'd like to know is why are you here and how did you get here? There are spells, charms, and Glamors shielding this place from the eyes of the likes of you."

Now it was Nathaniel's turn to look perplexed. "But we were in a back room of a coffee shop. I was about to call for you when you appeared and …" he trailed off.

"You didn't summon me and yet I somehow appeared," noted Bartimaeus. "And you didn't get suspicious of foul play? Really not, Na – Mandrake, I would've thought you'd have known better."

Nathaniel scowled. "Okay, so something tricked me. Now can we please get out of here?"

"It's not so simple," Bartimaeus said. "You see, to prevent humans from knowing of the existence of this place, there is a rule that if a djinn finds such a being, he or she must destroy the human."

Nathaniel visibly paled. How that was possible, Bartimaeus did not know. "Y-you wouldn't dare."

"Oh now would I? You are entirely in my power. This is better even than in the Other Place. There, I cannot harm you. Here, I can kill you in any way I wish." He took a step forward.

Nathaniel took a nervous step back, and then another, then turned tail and fled.

A moment later he tripped on a gravestone.

Sprawled on his back, he was paralyzed in fear by the creature approaching him. Giving a small whimper of fright, he pressed his back against the stone.

"Oh don't flee, Natty boy. I have so many ideas of how to get back at you for all those threats you've made, for the harm you have caused my essence."

Nathaniel began shaking. He never did like Halloween.

_A/N I didn't go trick-or-treating today (I really didn't want to…) so I worked on some homework and then decided, hey, now would be a good time to work on fanfictions! Full moon Hallows' eve. What better time? And it's so eerily cloudy too. The phantom rain._

_HAPPY HALLOWS' EVE EVERYONE~! Oh yeah, I may turn this into a two-shot, or maybe, MAYBE, mind you, a full-out story. The power is entirely in your hands and the reviews they type up. So, by the points on the pentacle I command you to leave a nice, long, golden review._


	2. Part 2

_Disclaimer: don't own the Bartimaeus Trilogy OR the character OR the plot. Jonathon Stroud owns that._

_I like how I left off, and I'm afraid that I will ruin this fanfiction with this chapter!_

_As someone pointed out, I should probably tell you all around when this story takes place. I would say… In my mind~! No well… if you want to be time (when Bartimaeus was in Nathaniel's power)-wise logical, maybe the end of_ Golem_/beginning of _Gate_, but if you want to be characteristic-wise logical, probably around_ Amulet. _I really don't know; it didn't occur to me when I planned this story. And planning takes me three minutes: "does the idea sound good?" then "does the first paragraph sound good?" then "should I upload this?" It's really no wonder it didn't occur to me…_

_And here is the chapter, people! (Yes, I called you that. Got a problem? Don't read. … I'm kidding! Continue please!)_

_Last time…_

_Nathaniel never did like Halloween._

"Relax, loosen up, Natty-boy," Bartimaeus cooed. "You've had this coming ever since the first time you summoned me." He sauntered over and knelt down by the trembling boy.

"L-let me go!" moaned Nathaniel, his eyes still tight-shut.

"Now why would I?" Bartimaeus asked in mock confusion. "I have you completely in my power, I know your birth name, and you've treated me – Bartimaeus of Uruk, Sahkr al Djinn, Serpent of the -"

"I get it, oh Rekhet of Alexandria!" Nathaniel suddenly snapped. He knew it was a mistake as soon as the words flew out of his mouth. He had spoken without thinking, and he knew it would get him into trouble, but oh! – his servant's (well… kind-of-but-not-really servant) bragging was driving him insane.

Nathaniel tilted his head up to face the Egyptian boy's unnatural crimson gaze head-on.

"Oh? Has Natty boy finally remembered his manners?" smirked Bartimaeus. He leaned a little closer to Nathaniel until his lips were brushing against the magician's right ear.

"I have thought up of many different ways to get back at you for causing such harm to my essence," he whispered. "Now do you want to hear them beforehand or have it be a surprise to you?"

Nathaniel tried to back away, but to his great dismay he remembered he was trapped against the tombstone.

Nathaniel bit his lip and shook his head.

"You don't want to hear them?" asked Bartimaeus. "It shall be you please, Nat."

"So how about you let me go and we can forget about this whole thing?"

"Hmm," the Egyptian boy struck a pose as if he were considering a very hard problem and tapped a finger against his chin. "Well, I suppose I could…"

"Thank you -"

"Oh, why thank me? I never said that I would agree to that proposal."

Nathaniel gulped and began struggling to get away from the djinni, but Bartimaeus was much stronger.

"Stop struggling," Bartimaeus hissed, "unless you want me to break your arm… Hey wait … yeah, that's a pretty good idea!"

Nathaniel turned even whiter. _Any whiter and he would've been able to pass for a ghost_, thought Bartimaeus.

"No, that won't be necessary…" Nathaniel pleaded.

"I wonder if that really is the case…" Bartimaeus mused, fingers lightly dancing on Nathaniel's arm. Then, without warning, he grabbed the limb in both hands and brought it down.

Nathaniel screamed and shut his eyes against the white-hot pain, the sick snapping sound… his imagination?

Nathaniel forced an eye open and stared at his right arm, still whole (thankfully), though in an uncomfortably tight, iron grip.

Bartimaeus was howling with laughter. "Oh Nathaniel, do that again!" he cried. "More, oh _more_! That was music to my ears – no, my very essence!"

The boy scowled and tugged lightly at his arm, still trying to overcome his shock. "Let _go_."

The demon's laughter stopped abruptly. "Did I just hear a command come out of that mouth? Oh _come _now, you don't _really_ think I will follow your orders tonight, do you? And well, quite frankly, I doubt you will be able to give another order after tonight."

Nathaniel shivered at the unsettling promise.

"Scream again, Nathaniel, beg for mercy," encouraged Bartimaeus cheerfully.

His voice was met by silence.

Bartimaeus stood up. "I'm going to kick you, you know. I really want to hear another scream, and if that means killing you in the process, than that's even better."

Nathaniel tried to rack his brain for proper words of defense, but in his fear-induced mind, he could think of nothing. Besides, his mind told him, the demon knew his name. The words of defense would be swept away like spider threads, and would do nothing but amuse him more.

In the end, Nathaniel settled for shutting up and letting his body go limp.

"Umph!" he gasped for breath as a harsh kick was delivered to his side.

"Scream already!" whined Bartimaeus.

Nathaniel shut his eyes against the very real pain, then looked up at the artificial boy and asked, "What do you want me to scream? You name? Wouldn't that please you so much?" Here he adopted a moan. "Oh Bartimaeus~! Oh! AHH!"

Bartimaeus, instead of becoming flustered as Nathaniel had hoped, had a cruel smirk plastered on his features. "Slut," he said.

Then he bent down, cupped Nathaniel's chin, forced his head forward and bit down on the magician's lip, drawing blood.

"Eeeeh!" Nathaniel could not stop a surprised squeak from coming out of his mouth. He could feel pain in his lip and side, and could feel something warm trickling down his chin. He hoped it wasn't blood, but didn't bother hoping too much.

Bartimaeus frowned. "Muffled" was all he said. Then his expression became one of horrible malice, and his fingers traced their way up Nathaniel's cheek to where his eyes were.

Realizing what the demon's intentions were, Nathaniel cried out and shut his eyes as firmly as possible.

Bartimaeus let his fingers dance lightly on the closed eyelids and asked in a small whisper, "If I take your sight away, would that not stop you from summoning any more demons? And it is said that when one sense is taken away, other senses heighten. I want you to feel every single part of this night." He emphasized the last six words with light pokes to Nathaniel's eyes.

The boy shook his head. "Please," he cried. "Please, Bartimaeus, don't!"

Bartimaeus sighed. "You're right," he said, drawing back. "If you don't see this, you won't know the full extent of what I'm doing. Maybe I should cut off your tongue. No? Cause you to go deaf. No? Boy are you picky!"

Nathaniel squirmed under the demon's scrutinizing gaze.

Then, after what seemed like both eternity and no time at all, Bartimaeus gave an evil cackle. "I know what to do now…"

_I do like how this chapter turned out though._

_I have made progress, yet I have not all at the same time. I'm so good at paradoxes… I have, yet have not, made progress~!_

_I actually do have a plan for where this is going, however, so don't worry. _

_You know the drill; read and_** REVIEW**_ this humble piece of 1201 words._


	3. Part 3

_Disclaimer: don't own the Bartimaeus Trilogy OR the character OR the plot. Jonathon Stroud owns that._

_Hm… Are we shipping here? I honestly don't know…. Well, I guess that this shall be one of those "up-to-the-readers" situations. I mean, you can view it as shipping; you can view it as Bartimaeus getting revenge; you can even view it as a waste of time._

_It's not fair! I typed up more than half a chapter at the library but I couldn't email it to myself and my time ran out T_T. I did that last week and was too depressed to try and write a new one… Until now…_

_Last time…_

"_I know what to do now…"_

Bartimaeus bent back down until his head was slightly lower than the magician's. Nathaniel's breath tickled the silky hair on Ptolomy's head. Bartimaeus let three cold digits dance their way up Mandrake's chest to where his neck lay exposed.

Then with the ferocity of a crazed tiger the djinni began tickling the boy.

Nathaniel squirmed against the gravestone, pride and dignity fighting against a desire to close his eyes and pretend he was still a child being tickled by Mrs. Underwood. He wanted to close his mind and live in that moment, before everything else had happened, for better or for worse.

In the end what erupted from him was a strangled giggle and pleas for Bartimaeus to stop. But to the demon's trained ears, the pleas were not whole-hearted.

Tears began streaming down his face, the first ones that had fallen since that night so long ago.

Bartimaeus wondered whether these tears were from the indignation of being tickled or from something else.

The boy tilted his head back, and Bartimaeus grinned. The boy actually liked being tickled; he actually WANTED to be tickled.

So the djinni stopped.

What good it a punishment if the victim wanted – practically begged – for it?

Nathaniel opened his eyes to look the demon.

"Naughty, so naughty," the demon whispered. "You are one of the mighty ones of the Empire. You should not want to be tickled, especially not by the likes of me. So why, Nathaniel?"

As the djinni finished Nathaniel's clouded mind cleared.

"Don't call me that!" he cried.

"Oh please, who's going to hear us? Definitely not one of the many enemies you've made in the government."

Nathaniel thought back to the magicians who had accidentally allowed their birth name to slip. One particularly notable one was when a magician had allowed the name to be learned by a lowly imp. Thinking it was nothing, the magician did not find ways to shut the imp up. This was followed by the imp telling a foliot the name, and so on, until it was heard by a marid. One day when the magician was out shopping, the marid came upon him and tore him to pieces.

The boy gulped. "No magicians will hear, but what of your fellow de – spirits?"

The Egyptian boy rolled his eyes. "Why would they care?"

Nathaniel shrugged. "It's weird; I just feel as though they don't like me very much. Djinn in general, I mean."

Bartimaeus fought back the urge to roll his eyes yet again. "I wonder why…"

"Yes, it is truly perplexing… Anyways, I can't bloody tickle you now, seeing as you enjoy it."

The boy gave a squawk of protest which was promptly cut off by Bartimaeus.

"Don't try to deny it. So what else are you afraid of?"

Nathaniel pouted and stared straight ahead.

"Oh do try and be cooperative, Natty-boy."

The djinni could almost hear the gears in his mind whirring as he tried to think of something. Finally he gave up.

"Come on," Bartimaeus growled. "Let's go somewhere else where I can think better." Saying so he grabbed the teen by one of his legs and, flapping gigantic wings that had materialized on Ptolomy's back, flew heavenward.

Nathaniel freaked out then. Crying out, he tried to right himself. Not two seconds after their rapid ascent, he could feel the blood rushing to his head. Bartimaeus was holding him by one leg which felt as though it would be torn out of its socket if the situation remained as is for much longer.

The magician could feel his fear of heights building up, mixing with the butterfly-in-his-stomach sensation he always got when he was too close to Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus stopped suddenly. Slowly he turned his gaze toward the cowering magician. "Did you … just scream?"

Nathaniel relaxed slightly. At least they weren't moving.

The demon narrowed his eyes. "Surely you aren't afraid of heights. But that scream right there suggests otherwise…" A truly demonic smile made its ways onto his face. "Why don't we test that theory?"

He swung Nathaniel slowly, from side to side, as if preparing to throw him.

The boy shut his eyes; trying to ignore the dizzying sensation the demon was causing him and instead focusing on something else. It did not work.

"S-stop! Put m – aaaah – Put me down!" Nathaniel cried.

Bartimaeus smirked. "Of course. Your wish is my command." With that he let go of Nathaniel's leg.

The magician fell, head first, toward the earth. He screamed, louder than he had ever done so before in his entire life.

The demon closed his eyes, the boy's pitiful voice enveloping his essence. He shivered. Then, judging that Nathaniel was probably already quite close to the ground, he dived down beside him.

Still a few seconds before Nathaniel would smash his head open.

Bartimaeus plunged down beside him. "Come on," he purred, voice silky. "Beg for your life."

Nathaniel's voice hurt. His mind could not register what the demon had said.

Sighing, Bartimaeus grabbed the magician. Nathaniel had shut his eyes tight during the entire descent. Dreading the inevitable moment when his head would meet sharp contact with the ground and his head would snap.

But he was still alive. He slowly opened his eyes. Bartimaeus looked at him, amused. Blushing, Nathaniel scrambled from the demon's grasp and in succeeding, fell the rest of the way to the ground.

The fall was not enough to kill him, but was enough to daze him even further.

Nathaniel looked up fearfully, but the demon seemed lost in his memories.

The mist had cleared sometime through the night, though Nathaniel felt it had been no more than two hours since he had arrived in the cemetery. Yet dawn was already upon them. As if reading his mind, Bartimaeus said, "Time runs differently here."

The small rays of the sun began reaching towards them. They stared at the sky, at the pink clouds.

The master, hair disheveled and face flushed, the servant, a mild smile upon his face, his wings causing him to look almost angelic. _How ironic_, Nathaniel thought.

Bartimaeus turned and looked at him then. "Well, Nat- Mandrake, I've had a pleasant night with you. Probably the most amusing since the last one I shared with Ptolomy, though for different reasons." Here he smirked and gave a wink. Then, adopting a less amused expression, continued with "And no, I do not care what you bloody think."

Nathaniel opened his mouth in protest, then shut them again.

He watched the sky turn bluer for another minute, and, turning to Bartimaeus to tell him _never_ to speak of this night again…

Saw his servant fading away.

He was slowly, ever so silently disappearing. "See you later, Nat. It is, after all, the start of a new day. Halloween and the night following it, has past. Without any bonds typing me to Earth, the Other Place draws me back."

Nathaniel said nothing.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Bartimaeus spoke again.

"Your hair's messed up."

With that, he disappeared completely, leaving Nathaniel scowling at the place where his servant had been standing just moments before.

_I think this was a rather sweet ending. What about you? Please do review. It would make Bartimaeus/Nathaniel/your favorite Bartimaeus character happy…_

_Yep. It has ended. Dun-dun-dun-duuun…_


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